Sunday, January 23, 2011

Polar Bear 5K

I was telling a friend last week that I hadn’t run a 5K in
almost a year. My last 5K I was 208 lbs and I finished in 22:30. I started
thinking to myself “maybe I should run that same race again this year”. So on
Saturday I decided to run the Polar bear 5K here in Denver on Sunday. It was a
nice morning, sunny and in the high 20’s, perfect 5K weather. I had forgotten
how much a 5K can hurt and I made it hurt. Right from the start I ran my guts
out finishing the first mile in 6:26. I slowed down a bit for the second mile
6:39, but then had a strong finish with my last mile at 6:21. My goal for the
race was to finish in less than 20 min. I barely missed the mark at 20:05! but I
am really happy with my time. Out of everyone I finished 8th overall and I
received an age group award for finishing 2nd in the 20-29 division. So exactly
one year later I’ve lost 19lbs and taken 2 ½ min off my 5K time.

An
observation: After the race I talked with a lot of runners who finished in front
of me and I as watched the next 10 or 20 people finish after me I noticed
something. I outweigh everyone in the top 25 by at least 30lbs lighter than me, most of these
guys look like they are between 130-150.